Free Fruit & Vegetable Printables and Montessori-Inspired Fruit & Vegetable Activities

I love it when young children love eating healthy foods! I have a new unit to help encourage that. Along with hands-on fruit and vegetable activities using free printables, I have a new themed pack. It’s a Montessori-inspired fruit and vegetable pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!

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Montessori Shelves with Fruit and Vegetable Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired fruit and vegetable numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You could mix your fruit and vegetable themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special fruit and vegetable themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels mainly from preschooler through early elementary. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Even though I have books on shelves, I keep the main Montessori-friendly books for our current theme in a book basket by the themed shelf. You’ll find a few of the books I’ve used here. I’ll publish a fruit and vegetable book post with more details at a later date.

The framed Paul Cezanne Curtain, Jug and Fruit (1894) print is a free download from Wikiart.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger.

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

The Fruits We Eat and The Vegetables We Eat Books with Activity Sorting Safari Ltd Fruits and Vegetables

Free Printable: I Can Sort Fruits and Vegetables by Awesome Preschool at Teachers Pay Teachers

I love Gail Gibbons books for lots of facts that are easy to understand. For this unit, we’re using both The Fruits We Eat and The Vegetables We Eat.

I most often keep materials on a Multicraft tray. Here, I used the Safari Ltd. Fruits and Vegetables TOOB figures for a fruits and vegetables sorting activity.

Here’s the layout for the fruits and vegetables sorting. See my free vegetables do-a-dot printable (Montessori-inspired instant download) post for more ideas using the free printable.

Vegetables 3-Part Cards with Fruit or Vegetable Pages from DK Smithsonian Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds Visual Encyclopedia

Free Printable: The free printable I used is no longer available, but you can get free garden fruits and vegetables 3-part cards from 1+1+1=1. I am in love with this Montessori cards display box for for displaying both 3-part cards and 4-part cards. It’s so attractive and doesn’t take up much space on my shelf.

On a wooden cookbook holder, I have the DK Smithsonian Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Plant Kingdom. The DK Smithsonian books typically have gorgeous photos and are wonderful reference books that I use for many units. This book is no exception. Even my toddler grandkids love the DK Smithsonian books!

You’ll notice the beginnings of a farmers’ market that we’ll be expanding throughout the unit. Right now, it includes some free printables and the Melissa and Doug Produce Bundle. All three of my grandchildren are in love with the farmers’ market activities we’ve started and have created some of their own.

Free Printable: Farmers Market Theme Signs by Tracy Ehlert at Teachers Pay Teachers

Free Printable: Fruit and Vegetable Money Spent and Sort by Waldas Life Skills at Teachers Pay Teachers

Free Printable: Fruit & Vegetable Posters – Vocabulary Builder from My Special Edventures at Teachers Pay Teachers (You can’t see these, but I printed them out and placed them on our Learning Tower easel.)

Letter F for Fruit and V for Vegetable Font Cards with Sand Tray and “ui” for Fruit Phonogram Card

Free Printables: Fruit letters f and v for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. Since Zoey is 6, she is focusing on spelling a lot. She needs more room for writing longer words. We’re also working on cursive.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

Activities with Fruit and Vegetable Alphabet Letters

My 2-year-old grandson, Caleb, is totally in love with anything related to learning letters … and anything related to fruits, vegetables, and the farmers’ market! So, I especially decided to do a fruit and vegetable unit this summer for Caleb (even though I’m including activities for a variety of levels).

The fruit and vegetable alphabet cards have small photographs of fruits and vegetables on them, which Caleb loves. He’s so fascinated with language activities that he can already identify almost all the beginning letter sounds along with thinking of items that start with a particular sound. This isn’t an activity I would generally do with a 2 year old. But Caleb loved it and matched the letters for the entire alphabet. Only the “a” ended up upside down. You’ll notice that I didn’t change it. Normally, I would present the activity again at a later date. Caleb will correct it  himself soon, so I don’t think I’ll even need to do that.

The Vegetable Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallota that’s shown on the shelf photos is a fun addition to the alphabet work. The book is Montessori friendly except for three words that aren’t phonetic. I find that most alphabet books have a few letters without phonetic words.

I used the letter “c” card for matching shades of color as well. I love eat-a-rainbow activities, and this could be used for that focus, too.

Fruit ui phonogram Card with I Have, Who Has Long U Game

Free Printable Fruit ui phonogram card ( (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber). Note: “ui” doesn’t need to be taught with the other phonograms. I like to include it when children are focused on spelling rules.

Free Printable: Long U: I Have, Who Has? by Melissa Adams at Melissa’s Lil’ Learners at Teachers Pay Teachers

The game is a fun way to focus on long u spellings. I just used a miniature wooden easel and this wooden tray. It’s only 6.5 x 4 x 1″ (a tiny size that’s hard to find in a wooden tray – especially one that’s already finished).

Where Do Bananas Come From and Where Does Broccoli Come From with Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition and Color Matching

Free Printable: Fruit and Vegetable Color Nutrition Chart by Debbie Madson at Teacherss Pay Teachers

The color nutrition chart has color information for a variety of ages along with nutrition information that’s better for early elementary.

Free Printable: Fruit Color Matching Cards from Z Lesa. I love to focus on finding the best shade of a color to match a picture or object. These sorts of activities are great extensions to work with the Montessori color box 3.

The books shown here are Where Do Bananas Come From? A Book of Fruits and Where Does Broccoli Come From? A Book of Vegetables. The books are recommended for kindergarten through grade 6. They’re packed with information and illustrations, but I don’t think they would be appealing for children younger than kindergarten age. I got them for my 6-year-old granddaughter and don’t expect my 2-year-old grandkids to be drawn to them.

Subtracting Blueberries Activity

Free Printable: Fruit and vegetable number cards 1-10 and subtraction equation symbols (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: I also have fruit rainbow number and symbol cards from my Montessori-inspired eat-a-rainbow pack, which is still available in the resource library. Those could be used for the math activities if you prefer.

Free Printable Subtraction Flash Cards from Memory Improvement Tips

Zoey has done lots of subtraction work, but this is a fun way to do a summer review. My granddaughters had a great time with this! I gave Zoey and Sophia each 10 blueberries. I had set out 4 of the subtraction flash cards. (10-3, 7-4, 3-2, and 1-1). Zoey would make the equation. Then she would spoon the appropriate amount onto each plate. After eating those blueberries, the next equation would be made and the blueberries eaten until they were all gone (after “solving” the 1-1 equation).

Update: I’ve done the subtraction activity with Caleb as well. He absolutely loves the activity and has me do it as many times as possible (until I decide he’s had enough blueberries!). I’m planning to put out different sets of the subraction flash cards (for example 10-2, 8-3, 5-2, 3-3 or 10-4, 6-2, 4-2, 2-1, 1-1). We won’t use the fruit number cards each time, but we’ll go through the series of flash cards while whichever child wanting to do the activity has a snack of berries. When Zoey wants to do the activity, I’ll use a series of equations starting in the teens.

For toddlers and preschoolers who are still working on counting skills, you could simply have the number card on the snack table with the corresponding number of fruit pieces for the child to eat. If the child is comfortable counting, you could designate the number of fruit pieces by simply placing the number on the snack table and letting the child or children know that shows how many fruit pieces are allowed for snack. I like to use a miniature wooden easel to display the card for that sort of activity.

Fruit Fraction Work Using Magnetic Apple Fractions and Free Printables

Free Printable: Fruit Fractions from Liz’s Early Learning Spot

Free Printable: Fraction Nomenclature Cards from The Pinay Homeschooler (I printed the black-and-white fraction circles on red cardstock.)

We had previously used the Magnetic Apple Fractions (They are recommended for ages 5-7 and have a warning about small magnets. The magnets aren’t visible, though, and can’t be accessed unless … possibly … if the apples are broken.)

You can see our previous work in my Montessori apple fraction activities for multiple ages post.

Montessori Fruits and Seeds Matching

Free Printable: Montessori Fruits and Seeds from Mama’s Happy Hive at Teachers Pay Teachers

These are perfect to use with a dissecting fruit activity!

For toddlers and young preschoolers, you could use these after or conjunction with a fruit matching and tasting activity.

Free Vegetables Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

Update: See my free vegetables do-a-dot phonics printable (Montessori-inspired instant download) post for another new free printable

Free Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Pack

Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox for the current password if you’re already a subscriber).

Montessori-Inspired Eat-a-Rainbow Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, and DIY Movable Alphabet (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox for the current password if you’re already a subscriber)

More Fruit and Vegetable Resources

• Free Vegetables Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities
• Free Fruit Rainbow Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download
• Free Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Montessori-Inspired Fruit Unit
• Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Unit
• Montessori-Inspired Food Art
• Montessori-Inspired Fruit Matching and Tasting for Toddlers
• Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
• Kids’ Kitchen: Berry Yummy and Healthy Protein-Rich Popsicles
• Cutting a Banana Practical Life Activity for Toddlers
• Healthy, Frozen Raspberry and Yogurt Desert (Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free)
• Ants on a Log Food Fun Preparation for Preschoolers
• Fun with Montessori Apple Coring, Slicing, Spreading, and Sharing
• Yummy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Delicious and Nutritious Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin-Pie Squares
• Super-Healthy and Super-Yummy Strawberry Pineapple Smoothie
• Favorite Gluten-Free Sweet Spinach Muffins {AKA Green Monster Muffins}
• Kids’ Food Fun Pinterest Board

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout July, see my July Themed Activities for Kids. You’ll find the link to calendar-based activities for August at the bottom of my July calendar post.

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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